It is a truth universally acknowledged that the phrase “no story here” is guaranteed to pique the interest of any listener.
Brendan Rodgers, the Celtic manager, has insisted that there is nothing in Leigh Griffiths’ recent demotion to the Parkhead bench but given that the Scotland internationalist has fallen foul of Rodgers’ standards before, it seems only natural to query why the striker has found himself down the pecking order of late.
On-loan French teenager Odsonne Edouard has been the main beneficiary, netting a hat-trick against Motherwell and leading the line against Hibs this weekend.
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Griffiths got off the bench only to warm-up forlornly in those two league games and it was the same story with the Champions League game against Anderlecht which was sandwiched in between.
Indeed, as the first-team squad came through the trackside mixed zone in the aftermath of that game against the Belgians, Griffiths and the rest of the Celtic substitutes were put through a brief training session on the park. It was difficult to ignore the lackadaisical approach of the forward.
Rodgers issued a public rebuke to Griffiths last term when he felt the striker was not adhering to the lifestyle choices expected of the club but, ironically, there is perhaps a more ominous note to be sounded in Rodgers’ reluctance to discuss the situation publicly this time.
Asked how Griffiths had reacted to finding himself on the outside looking in, Rodgers remarked: “I don’t know. You would need to ask him. I can only speak about him if you speak about every single player that doesn’t play.
“I respect that he’s Scottish and I respect that he plays for Scotland but if you ask me about Leigh you have to ask why Moussa Dembele or Kristoffer Ajer isn’t playing.
“Or why Erik Sviatchenko isn’t playing. If you don’t want to ask me about them....
“There’s no story in it. I’m picking what I think is the best team. Odsonne is coming off a hat-trick against Motherwell where he was brilliant and performed well when he came into the team in the Champions league game.
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“It’s about picking players in a good moment and it’s a long season. Leigh is a fantastic young striker for us and what I have now is three players who can contribute depending on what type of game I need to play.
“Moussa and Leigh have their qualities and Odsonne is a combination of both and I thought he did well against Hibs.”
In any case, if the weekend’s action at Easter Road showed anything it is that Celtic are invincible but perhaps not infallible.
Rodgers’ side protected their 68 game sequence of domestic games without defeat through a last-gasp hoof off the line from Swedish defender Mikael Lustig. What was conspicuous, though, was the manner in which Celtic allowed a 2-0 lead to fritter through their fingers and a game that had looked well out of sight drew to a precarious climax.
Notable because Celtic, in a domestic context, have been ruthless at avoiding such slippery, antsy moments of fragility. This term Celtic have now drawn five games – one more than they did throughout the entire course of last term - meaning that the Parkhead side have already lost more points at this stage than they had in the entirety of the previous campaign.
There has been a vulnerability glimpsed this season that wasn’t previously visible, perhaps due to a leggyness on the back of a gruelling Champions League qualification and group campaign or perhaps due to a mental fatigue that could well stem from the run itself.
For Brendan Rodgers, though, the reasons for that can be attributed to the uniqueness of his inaugural season at the Parkhead club.
Read more: Moussa Dembele won't rule out a January move - but insists he is "100%" focused on Celtic
“I think it tells you that last season we had the best season in Scottish football history and they don’t happen all the time,” said the Celtic manager.
“This year we’ve made a tremendous start and we’ve won our league Cup, we’re five clear with a game in hand and have six games until the winter break.
“We’re in a great, great place. We can be better at seeing out games, but you have to give Hibs credit. They threw everything at it in the last 15 minutes.
“They took their chance so for us there was so much good in the game we have to learn from that which wasn’t so good for example the lead up to the corner.
“And then when we concede the second goal.”
Central defender Marvin Compper is on Rodgers’ shopping list for January and there has been much chat over the course of the last few months about the failure to sign a defender in the summer. Domestically, though, Rodgers has maintained that there have been improvements in the backline.
“At this stage compared to last season we have conceded less – we’ve conceded 10 and last season it was 15,” he observed.
“I said at the last winter break we needed to defend better in order to attack better.
“You see us against Motherwell at 2-1 in the 5-1 game. They scored but we had to stay calm and stay in shape and play football and the goals will come.
“We didn’t quite do that on Sunday, but that’s natural and it will come and help the players become better. In general they have done that over 18 months.”
The Celtic manager was also dismissive of the weight that the record breaking run his side are on could exert.
“I've said to them that is doesn't matter,” said Rodgers of the record. "I've reiterated that to them to forget about the record. I've told them: 'you broke that games ago.' It's about performance. You can't worry about the run."
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